Vox promotes sex awareness
By: MaryAnn Barone, Staff Writer
Daily Tar Heel
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: University
Senior Maureen Stutzman reacts to a Jeopardy! question during a sex toy party Tuesday night. The Hawaiian-themed event, held by Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, helped promote discussion of sexual health issues.
When students walked into Murphey Hall on Tuesday night, they were handed goody bags of colored condoms, lubricant and candy.
Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood hosted a sex toy party that about 50 students attended.
The theme of the event was Hawaiian, with the tag line on Facebook: “Get lei’d with Vox.”
“It’s educational but also fun,” said Laura Andrews, a member of Vox.
This is the first time Vox has put on such an event. Andrews said the group planned the party to have fun but also to get students to discuss sexual health issues.
“We thought it would be a really fun event to get some progressive people together,” she said.
Students who attended Tuesday’s event played a game of Jeopardy!, with questions based on sexually transmitted infections and abortion facts.
They were divided into teams of four, which students signed up for when they walked in. The winning team from each of the two rounds received prizes.
A raffle for a German Fun Factory vibrator, valued at $80, was held at the event with tickets selling for $1. [We carry Fun Factory!]
“I want a pretty pink vibrator,” Amanda Veazey, a junior anthropology major, said before the raffle.
Vox members also provided free pizza and additional prizes as incentives for attendees.
About five men attended the party.
“I wanted to bring some male support,” said David Greenslade, a senior biology major.
Andrews said she hopes people will be influenced by the information they learned from the event.
“It’s general facts but also some activism with it,” she said.
Laura Ciompi, another member of Vox, said that though the issue of women’s sexuality is more open on college campuses because they’re usually a more liberal atmosphere, the information from the event can be applied after graduation.
“Just because we are in college now doesn’t mean we will be here forever,” Ciompi said.
The group, whose name comes from the Latin word for voice, is aimed at this college generation’s abortion-rights supporters.
Vox is cropping up on many college campuses across the country. But members said that it has grown especially in North Carolina.
There are Vox programs at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as at N.C. State University, N. C. Central University, UNC-Wilmington and UNC-Greensboro.
In the past, Vox has put on events such as sex awareness campaigns, safer sex campaigns and book readings.
Later this year, the group will have a birth control campaign to try to decrease birth control prices because they have increased in the past year.
Katelyn Bryant-Comstock, co-chairwoman of Vox, said that the purpose of these events also was to educate campus.
Money raised from the raffle at the event will fund future Vox programs.